Dear Diary,

Why won't the human just leave me alone?

Seriously, every time Luz comes around, trouble isn't far behind her. Did somebody curse me? Is she even real? Is she just a figment of my imagination? Or an illusion?

Okay, I know she's real, but the way she keeps screwing me over every time we cross paths is beyond my comprehension. She did nothing less than embarrass me in front of the entire town at the Covention yesterday.

Well, maybe I had a little part in it too. BUT LILLITH SCREWED UP TOO! In all reality, it was all because of Luz.

So we enter the arena for our duel, right? Lillith announces me to the crowd, and they go crazy! All I could hear was the roar of my name coming from all my adoring fans. But then, she announced Luz, and the room switched from cheers to murmurs. No one knew who she was, and like me, didn't think she could do any magic. It was hard to stifle a laugh, but I knew I had to maintain my composure. I was in the public eye, anyways! Regardless, I planned to do a lot of laughing after I won.

Shortly after we were announced, the bell screamed, signaling the start of our duel. I conjured an abomination (one of the best I've done so far, might I add). It was gigantic! I think only dad and Darius have ever conjured one bigger than mine. When she found it towering over her, she took off running to hide in the corner of the arena and yelling about how she's not good under pressure. I took that to my advantage and ordered the soldier to run after her. Everything seemed to be going well, and it almost landed its first attack. But the next thing I knew, one of its legs and arms caught on fire. I knew there was no way Luz could do that by herself, but she said it was "magic".

Yeah right.

We kept fighting, and the abomination and I ended up getting blown halfway across the floor by a tornado. I knew she didn't conjure it, she didn't move her hands! And I know there was no way she could conjure something like that with her mind alone. If a witch as skilled as me couldn't do it, then how could a mere mortal?

At one point, my abomination went running after Luz and I followed, ready to put an end to our fight. She couldn't run forever, now could she? But, as I was stepping up to deliver one of my final blows, she told me to stop where I was. There were a bunch of small bumps on the floor of the arena, and I almost stumbled onto one of them. I questioned her, wondering what could possibly happen if I didn't. Right at that moment, King fell into the pit and instantly got speared by some cement spikes that emerged from the floor.

Just think, if I had taken just one more step, or set my foot down that much closer, I COULD HAVE DIED! Or, at least been seriously injured. I feel like Lillith would have immediately cast some sort of spell to help me out of the rocks and began to heal me. Either way, maybe I would have been okay with it.

Luckily for Luz, King was okay. At that point, Lillith called the duel and declared me winner by default. I began to walk away, beaming with pride and knowing that I fought a clean fight. A win is a win, anyways!

Or, at least that's what I thought.

When I turned my back, Luz's mentor saw a power glyph from the construction coven on the back of my neck. It turns out Lillith stuck it there right before the duel. I knew she gave me a pat on the back right before I walked out into the arena, but I honestly had no clue that she stuck it onto me. I later realized that's how my abomination was so big. How did I think that I could actually do that myself? I mean, I still have to use a training wand to master new spells! And why didn't Lillith believe in me? I thought I was her "top protégé"? I mean, if Luz's mentor (I think Lillith said her name was Eda) didn't step in, I could have beat Luz easily.

Embarrassed, I ran out of the arena, just barely holding back the tears filling my eyes. I felt like I was moving in slow motion, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Kinda luckily for me, there weren't many witches roaming the rest of the Covention (I know that just means more of them saw me fail, but at least there were a few who didn't). I was able to find a quiet and secluded spot in the hall to unleash my emotions. Well, it was quiet until *she* showed up.

Well diary, I must admit that I showed weakness. I know I'm not supposed to, especially in front of other people. But in that moment, I had to.

I couldn't hold it back any longer. I lashed out at Luz. She claimed that she didn't mean to embarrass me, but that's the only thing I think she knows how to do, aside from embarrassing herself too. She made me look like a fool in front of the Emperor's Coven- my future! I've been training my whole life to get a spot in their brigade, and she just waltzes into my life thinking that it's so easy to be a witch. News flash human- it's not! I've been working for years to get to the top, just for any chance of me getting there to be ruined in less than five minutes. In my anger, I made her admit that she's not a witch, just to get a smidgen of justification and pride back.

She admitted it, but then she dropped to the ground and began doodling some shapes on a notepad. It was a circle with a few triangles, circles, and other lines in the middle. She tapped the paper, and it instantly balled up into a small, bright orb of light. It was only a light spell, I knew babies who could cast one. But, I had never seen it done through a glyph before. I wonder how she learned to do that. Maybe her mentor taught her.

Wait Amity, why are you thinking so much about this? Get back on track.

Luz told me that magic doesn't come as naturally to her, and that she's had to do a lot of improvising. For a second, I thought of my own struggles of learning magic. The long nights of mom yelling at me to watch my wrists, and the endless teasing from Ed and Em when I couldn't even make an abomination the size of my Otabin doll. It was at that point I did the unthinkable- reverse the everlasting oath.

I truly feel pity for her. One of the only other people I actually feel it for is Willow, pretty much for the same reason. While I don't know a life without magic, I know it took me a while to get a hang of my powers. When she asked me if she could continue her studies, I reminded her that humans have no magical ability, but I told her that I doubted it would stop her from trying to learn. Which is true. She seems so steadfast and unrelenting, it kinda reminds me of myself. Today I learned that Luz isn't one to back down from a challenge, especially those she blindly throws herself into. Maybe I'll try to use that to my advantage later, maybe someday we can have a clean fight, just one on one.

But for now, I need to sleep. I learned that while a power glyph gives whoever wears it immense power and strength, it also ends up draining a lot of energy out of them, and I've been feeling it all day. I have to rest up, I have the moonlight conjuring planned in a few days!

Beaten but not defeated,
Amity

A/N: Hi everyone! So this story is my first foray back into fiction writing after about six and a half years. To risk sounding cheesy, please leave me some reviews and let me know how I can improve. I know my writing outside of FF has flourished a lot, and I'm hoping that translates into the works for this site! I really hope you're enjoying so far!